Bookshelf Roundup 06/13/20: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Well, last week was so busy that I had a roundup post all drafted out in the middle of the week, but when Saturday rolled around, it completely slipped my mind to actually hit that “Publish” button. Oops! By the time I remembered it was already quite late, so this just means we’ll have a longer post today because we’ll be covering two weeks.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
In the mail, I received The Puzzler’s War by Eyal Kless, the sequel to The Lost Puzzler which I read last year. It was an intriguing introduction to a post-apocalyptic dystopian series, and despite some pacing issues, I was interested in continuing. Very glad to have a review copy, with thanks to Harper Voyager.
Because I missed posting last week’s roundup and because it was also the first week of the month, my digital piled kind of exploded, especially with audiobooks. But first, from NetGalley I snagged Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May, with thanks to DAW Books.
Next, we’re hitting up all the audiobook publishers today, leading with Penguin Random House Audio, from whom I received listening copies of Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay, Home Before Dark by Riley Sager (creepy!) and Devolution by Max Brooks (read by an epic full cast). From their Young Adult audio imprint Listening Library, I also received The Kinder Poison by Natalie Mae as well as Star Wars: Queen’s Peril by E.K. Johnston.
With thanks to Hachette Audio I also hauled a couple exciting new listens including The Hollow Ones by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan as well as Afterland by Lauren Beukes. Courtesy of Harper Audio, I received Seasons of the Storm by Elle Cosimano and Obliteration by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth. And finally, my thanks to Macmillan Audio for sending me The Half Sister by Sandie Jones and The Shadows by Alex North. I’m definitely getting my thriller fix in for the week!
Reviews
This Is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf (4 of 5 stars)
Incendiary by Zoraida Córdova (4 of 5 stars)
Dragon Unleashed by Grace Draven (4 of 5 stars)
The House of Whispers by Laura Purcell (4 of 5 stars)
The Last Emperox by John Scalzi (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Closer You Get by Mary Torjussen (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Split by Sharon Bolton (3 of 5 stars)
This Week’s Reads
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read! Let me know what you plan on checking out. Until next time, see you next Roundup!
The BiblioSanctum 
I got my copy of Grace Draven this week!!! I think in July as I’ll have three weeks off I’ll have to binge read so many books I got these last weeks!
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Yay! I can’t wait to hear what you think!
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Hopefully the Del Toro/Hogan book is better than their Strain trilogy…
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Haha, me too…I only read the first book, and it wasn’t bad, I guess, but I never felt the urge to continue.
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Home Before Dark sounds really creepy, and that’s the main reason I keep eyeing it… 😉
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I confess, I only learned of it recently. But I immediately knew I had to read it!
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Ooh I so can’t wait for A Kinder Poison and Home Before Dark To Come Out. They both sound incredible. I’m also pretty curious about The Shadows.
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Yeah, I seriously can’t believe I only discovered Home Before Dark recently – but it sounds right up my alley! 😀
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I hope you enjoy it ☺️
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Ooh nice! I am super curious about Seasons of the Storm! It sounds like a unique kind of read! Hope you enjoy all the lovely new reads!
My StS will be up tomorrow, so stop by then if you can!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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Yeah, I’m hoping Seasons of the Storm will be good – I saw the synopsis and cover and couldn’t resist 🙂
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I grabbed Seven Devils as well, and I’ve been reading some good reviews for Devolution. I’d like to read The Hollow Ones as well, but I’m waiting for it to pop up on NetGalley. And I took a peek and saw your rating for Hella, looks like we had similar reading experiences🤪
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Yeah, haha, Hella…this is going to be a tough review to write! I have REALLY mixed feelings 🙂
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I’ve got Seven Devils & Afterland waiting for reads as well. I looked at Obliteration but while I thought their other collaborations were OK, I didn’t like them enough to commit to a review.
I don’t normally read YA, but I have to admit Johnston has caught my attention with first an Ahsoka book and now 2 Padme/Amidala books.
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I’ve read the first two books, so I figured I would continue with Obliteration – they’re fun and quick at least! 😀
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New books, yay
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Always a cause for celebration!
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Seven Devils is a new release that I have my eyes on, it sounds freakin’ amazing! 🙂
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Right?! 😀 I couldn’t resist when I saw it pop up on NetGalley, though I really should raise my stats up a little more first, oops 😛
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I really like that cover for The Shadows. Most of the others are completely new to me.
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Alex North’s books have some really cool covers. The Whisper Man was like that too, where there’s more than meets the eye 🙂
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I really want to hear your thoughts on Queen’s Peril. I read it about a month ago.
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Yeah I’m hoping to get to that one soon! It looks like a quick read.
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Both your review copy list and your reading list are amazing. I can’t wait for your reviews.
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Heh heh, now to find time to read them all 😀
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How is this TWO WEEKS? If I got this many books a month I’d be way behind! Though I guess since most of them are audiobooks I could just listen all day… all week… no, I think it’d still be too much for me. I’m interested to see how you like Sager’s book, though mostly I’ve heard good things.
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The beginning of the month is always bad, haha – a lot of the audio publishers send their newsletter/review copy lists then, and oof, my tbr just explodes!
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Well, good luck! 😁
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Oooh, the new Max Brooks book. I’ve been interested to see how that one is. Enjoy these!
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I have a couple of your books on my shelf waiting to be read. I’m trying to behave with NG and try and get my stats up – it seems impossible for me to get above 75% – I blame my early heady ‘kid in a sweetshop’ days which makes it almost impossible to truly catch up.
Lynn 😀
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